//------------------------------//
// June 7th, 2015 
// Story: Perils of a Merpony: A Ponies after People Tale 
// by kitten_girl86 
//------------------------------//

June 7th, 2015 @ 11 am, still at Niagara Center parking lot
 Dear Journal,

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!
I just spotted a pony running towards my truck!!! 






Kathryn watched as a large pony galloped towards her vehicle. She could see that he had rigged some kind of harness to the gardening wagon that he towed behind himself and he looked exhausted.
Stumbling down the height of the truck’s seat, she clumsily got to her hooves and hurried over to see the pony was in fact, a unicorn! She slightly skipped a beat in her gallop to reach the male, light grey body-two tone short grey/black haired, unicorn.

“Oh mighty thanks I caught up with you before you left! You’re the first pony I've seen since mid-May,” he said, breathlessly as he knelt down to rest, breathing heavily.

But Kathryn quickly shook her head and became all business. “I'm heading east. If you want to come with me, we go now. You can rest in the truck,” she said as she hurried to take the harness off the unicorn and wear it herself. The harness was clearly meant for someone far bigger than her but she managed it easily... but she could not figure out why that was. As Kathryn had removed the harness, she noticed that he also had a butt tattoo but his had the picture of a water dam on it; like Niagara Falls or Hover dam.

She took no longer to ponder it as she took the wagon to the RV, unloading the supplies and strapping the wagon down on the flatbed. The unicorn watched her do all of this with her hooves, fascinated at her dexterity.
When she came back to the truck, he stuck a hoof out to shake. “My name is Eddie Jones. I am... or rather... I was the leading manager of the Niagara Falls hydro-electric generator. I've already released the river from the dam and have no reason to stay here. I'm hoping to find more ponies further east... maybe more like me who can help me with my horn,” he said as his horn lit up in a soft yellow glow before letting out a few small sparks!
The shock of the sparks caused Kathryn to jerk backwards in fright & let out a cry. Raea, hearing & thinking her owner was in distress, leaped out of the truck and positioned herself between Kathryn and Eddie. 
Eddie’s horn stopped the sparks the moment Raea started growling. Eddie felt extreme fear of this dog, despite recognizing Raea’s Border collie breeding and being a dog-lover. His previous experience with dog packs had not been as positive as Kathryn’s and she must have realized that because a few heartbeats later, she called Raea off.
“Raea is my dog.... she’s very protective of me. She won’t be a problem, right?” Kathryn asked. Eddie quickly shook his head. “Oh no; not at all! Normally I love dogs... just haven’t had great experiences lately.”
Kathryn raised her hoof to shake again. “My name’s Kathryn. Eventually, I want to reach the Atlantic Ocean but I can bring you along for as far as you want to go.” They hoof-bumped before climbing back into the truck’s cab, with Raea, and set off down the completely deserted Interstate 90.

The next few hours flew, by Kathryn taking the pickup truck easily up to 130(km/hr) on the flat stretches and slowing down to 90 on the curves. They rode together in relative silence as Raea sat between them; Eddie absent-minded patting Raea’s head.
Each time they came to a city, Kathryn spoke on her radio and honked the horn really loudly to be heard by any possible survivors but every time, they came up empty. However, the closer they got to Henrietta, NY the more they saw the ransacking and salvaging that Kathryn had been a part of back in Brantford.

When they finally reached Henrietta, they were shocked to find a newly formed colony of ponies! Ponies like Kathryn, some like Eddie and even a few with wings! What’s more, there was a very small group of strange bug-like ponies mingling around one house that had a green slime all over it; they had horns AND wings but the former were crooked and the latter were more bug-like than the feathered ones she saw on some. And then, few of those with wings had bat wings instead of feathers.
Kathryn & Eddie saw a large variety of butt tattoos from many of the ponies they saw; but a very few did not have any at all. That only raised more questions for Kathryn but she threw those thoughts to the back of her mind as she carefully drove through the town and found a large, mostly empty parking lot to park the truck, RV & trailer.

As she parked, a pair of ponies walked from what appeared to be the former church of the town (but it was missing the cross at the top steeple). Kathryn saw that they were both like her; no wings or horn. 
Raea took up a protective stance between her owner and the new ponies. The larger male took out a bone from out of nowhere and tossed it to Raea. The dog happily pounced on the bone & started gnawing on it.
Kathryn rolled her eyes at Raea’s antics while the new ponies simply chuckled. The male was orange body with rugged long brown mane & tail, the former pulled back in a pony tail (Kathryn smirked at the irony) and he bore a corn stalk for a butt tattoo. The female was about the same size as Kathryn; she was green body with two-toned neon green-white mane & tail and a butt tattoo of an apple seed sprouting.
The male introduced himself as ‘Joe Farmer’ and the female as his partner, ‘Amy Orchard’. “I welcome you both to our little colony of Farmville. Please, let us show you around,” said Joe as he began to lead them down the main street.

Kathryn saw ponies carting in farm produce from the out-lying farms, herding cows from a former warehouse to a park, replacing broken windows, lowering door handles... mostly mundane stuff until Eddie nudged her and pointed to a pair of unicorns; one was encouraging the second, who’s horn was a glow and pointed to a small rock. They watched in shock as the rock was enveloped in the same glow and suddenly levitated up all on its own! Without realizing it, both Kathryn & Eddie stopped in their tracks to gape at the sight.
Joe & Amy quickly realized what was going on and double backed to explain that this was all possible due to something called thaumic radiation; but everyone kept referring it to magic. “It’s the reason pegasi can fly, earth ponies like us are super strong & have super endurance and unicorns can levitate among other things,” said Amy. “We think it’s also the reason behind the other animals’ increase of intelligence,” added Joe.
Kathryn could understand the animals’ change, as she had experienced it with Raea & Butch back in Brantford but the magic thing had been really far-fetched... until she remembered her own mer-pony transformation and the appearance of the butt mark.
As they watched the second unicorn lift a heavier rock than the first, they saw the look of sheer joy overcome the pony’s face and a white light flashed on his flank before a lifting weight surrounded by an aura (that matched the color of his magic) appeared.
“We think the flank marks have something to do with a ponies’ job or ability,” Amy said as she gestured to the unicorn high-fiving (one-hoofing?) his buddy and a few others stopping along the way to congratulate him.

Eddie could only sadly shake his head, his mane swaying with him before settling on shoulders again. “I have a horn and a mark and no idea how either of them work.” “It’s not that a mark ‘works’; it just represents who you are,” Amy calmly explained.

“Yeah! We have a unicorn that can’t perform magic either, just like you Eddie. But her problem is not that she can’t grasp it... it just won’t work as well on land.” Kathryn & Eddie exchanged curious looks as they were lead to the nearby community swimming pool.
There, sitting under a shade umbrella, in the water, on the edge of pool was another merpony! She was clearly a unicorn but her horn was a different style to Eddie’s; she was purple body, two-toned darker purple & white braided mane, a butt tattoo of a white snail shell and a long fish tail, ending in the same stripped style as Kathryn’s. She had fuchsia eyes, freckles and fashionably wore white armbands above her knees.

As they approached, the merpony used her tail to jump out of the water and she sat up on an old reclining pool lounge. Amy introduced her as Sarah Jackson.

While Kathryn wasn’t surprised, Eddie’s eyes were nearly bugging out of his head. Kathryn wondered at the pony’s mark of a snail shell; Raea went up to the pony, snuffed her tail, face lit up and ran back to Kathryn, surprising her out of her thoughts. The patio was still slippery from Sarah dragging herself from the water; Kathryn lost her footing and fell backwards into the pool!

As Eddie, Amy, Joe & Sarah watched Kathryn’s transformation, Joe turned to Eddie. “Did you know any of this??” Eddie shook his head harshly. “No, I swear! I had no idea! We only just met this morning when she offered me a lift going east!”
The moment Kathryn surfaced Raea swam up to her and started licking her face. Kathryn could not stay angry at Raea for very long and laughed up a storm as she attempted to climb back up onto the patio. As soon as Kathryn’s tail popped up, Eddie approached her, knelt down to her level and practically shouted in her face. “What the fuck Kathryn? Why didn’t you tell me about this??”
Kathryn flinched a little away from Eddie. “I didn’t think it was relevant, Eddie! I would have told you had we reached the ocean together,” she said defensively.
Just as her tail became sufficiently dry, the ‘magic’ took over; her mark glowed and a quick white ribbon of light surrounded her, and she reverted back to land pony. 

Sarah simply shook her head sadly. “You’re lucky Kathryn. I can’t turn into a land pony like you. I've been living here since I woke three weeks ago in my bed. I actually lived here before the event, and then I woke up here too. Thankfully, Amy & Joe were passing through when they heard my cries for help. Eventually, it was decided to move me here and keep the pool going while they built the new colony here with help from others who choose to stay.”
Sarah looked meaningfully from Eddie, who nodded his head yes, and Kathryn who shook her head no. 
“I want to stay and learn this ‘magic’, for as long as you’ll have me,” Eddie said.
“I'm not staying on land much. I'm driving to the Atlantic Ocean. Now that I know that there are more merponies, I want to find them and bring them together,” Kathryn said, returning the meaningful look to Sarah. 
Sarah nodded and said simply, “I need some time to think about it.”

Joe & Amy felt the mood change and desired to fix it. “Eddie, if you’d follow Joe I'm sure he could find you somepony to help you with your magic,” said Amy sweetly. Eddie nodded and followed Joe out of the enclosed pool area. 
Kathryn stood and looked to the sun. It was still mid-afternoon but she was not leaving until Sarah made her decision. “I think I’ll go set up my RV for a stay overnight, if that’s ok with you?” she asked Amy. 
Amy was quick to agree. “Oh, my of course you’re invited to stay the night! And Eddie will be more than welcome to remain here if he so chooses. In fact, we always have a welcoming feast/pool party here at the community center when someone joins our ranks. Would you be in attendance?”
“Perhaps for the food but not the swimming; as you saw with Eddie, I prefer to keep my abilities to myself. From what I've seen, none of the other ‘earth’ ponies can do any magic like mine. I don’t want to make a spectacle of myself,” said Kathryn as she walked away from Amy & Sarah. They looked to each other. “That girl’s got magic fright,” Sarah said quietly. “I agree,” said Amy.

As Kathryn walked back through town and to her truck, she had a lot on her mind. She did have a few more answers but that only lead to a bunch more questions. Raea trotted beside her, occasionally stopping to sniff an old light pole, front lawn, or sidewalk tree.
Why was she like that as a merpony? Why could she, as an Earth pony, turn back and forth but a unicorn like Sarah could not? How was that fair?

Turning on the generator and flipping a few switches on the outside of the RV, a few of the walls on hydraulics opened up and dropped supporting legs underneath to nearly double the space inside, Kathryn continued to mull over the situation. She could not blame Eddie for his reaction. SHE was the one who kept the secret from him; avoided answering any questions about her flank mark. 
Going inside the RV, she moved all of the totes and stuff to the sides to create an aisle down the center to reach each of the areas. Flipping another switch dropped a rolled canvas wall on one side, creating a private bedroom in case Eddie came back... “Unlikely like he would after what happened at the pool,” she grumbled out loud. 
Raea had taken a seat on the dining table's bench as soon as Kathryn had opened the door. Now, at the sound of her owner’s voice, she perked up her head in Kathryn’s direction. “This is all your fault, you know,” Kathryn said to Raea, who just kept staring and panting. 

After throwing some blankets and a pillow on the pop-out bed (more hydraulics) in the spare room, and making sure the genny had enough bio-fuel to last until the welcoming party at 6, Kathryn took up her tablet to the master and pulled out the stylus.
Raea trotted into the room and curled up on the floor rug, directly in the sunlight spilling from a window.






June 7th, 2015 @ 2:45 pm, colony in Henrietta, NY (renamed Farmville)
 Dear Journal,

I have a crazy amount to share! And I'm not even sure where to begin....